


The Only One

by Yaajkuza



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bolin-centric, Eventual Romance, M/M, OC-centric, On Hiatus, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-03
Updated: 2015-04-03
Packaged: 2018-03-20 23:34:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3669306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yaajkuza/pseuds/Yaajkuza
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With the arrival of the Avatar in Republic City, and a new face to one of their favorite restaurants, the two brothers would never have guessed that their whole world would change.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Only One

“Hey Narook, is our table ready?” A tall young man wearing a red scarf said as he walked into the noodle restaurant.

“Right there,” the owner said while pointing the man to his usual table.

The waiter saw the young man being seated and went up to him to take his order. “Welcome to Narook’s! How can I get you for today?” A waiter said to the seated man.

“I’m not ready yet, I’m still waiting on someone,” the man said to the pleasant waiter.

“Hey Mako,” Narook said to him, “this is one of our new employee. His name is Aquila.” Then he turned to the waiter, “and Aquila, he and his brother come here quite often.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Aquila,” Mako said to the waiter as he stuck out his hand.

“Nice to meet you too, Mako,” Aquila said as he hastily shook his hand. “I’m sorry to run after I had just met you,” he said before going to help other customers.

“He seems nice,” Mako said to Narook, observing the new employee as he worked. He was in uniform, but the striking thing was that he had golden amber eyes and was wearing a bandana as a skull cap. Mako just took that as odd.

“He’s good for business. With him our service has been great,” Narook remarked.

After a good five minutes, someone familiar came in. He was of average height with a bulky body.

“Welcome to Narook’s! I’ll be right there,” the waiter called out while he was still attending to other customers at that time.

The young man stood there for a minute or two, looking at the waiter before he sat across from Mako.

Mako noticed how Bolin was troubled, “What’s wrong Bolin?”

“Is that a new waiter?” Bolin asked Mako in a whispered tone.

“Yeah, he just started working here not too long ago,” Mako started to say to his brother, “He’s a pretty nice guy.”

Bolin became silent for a while. “I think I should know him…” Almost immediately after Pabu ran off in the restaurant. Bolin ordered Pabu to come back to him, but he didn’t, the fire ferret kept running until he got to the waiter. The waiter noticed the fire ferret and stuck out his hand to it. It smelled the hand, then licked it, and finally climbed up it. The fire ferret went around the waiter’s neck and rested there. Bolin was still confused on who the waiter was.

The waiter looked at where the fire ferret came from, and he saw someone looking at him and Mako having a palm to his face. The waiter went towards them and asked, “Is this who you were waiting for?”

“Yeah,” Mako said as he lifted up his palm, “this is my little brother Bolin.” Then he pointed to the fire ferret. “And that is his pet fire ferret… Pabu.”

Bolin spoke up this time, “I’m sorry if he scared you…”

“It’s okay. There’s no harm done.” The waiter smiled at them. “So, are you guys ready to order?”

“Yeah, can I get the specialty seaweed noodles?” Mako ordered.

“I—I’ll get the same thing,” Bolin stuttered.

Once the waiter left, Mako asked Bolin directly, “What wrong with you?”

“I… I don’t know… He just seemed familiar that’s all,” Bolin said to let the conversation drop. He didn’t think he knew the person, but Pabu certainly knew him for some reason. He was scratching Pabu’s belly asking it, “Who is he?”

It was a while until the waiter came with their food and placed them on their table, but before he left, Bolin called out to him. “Can I ask what your name is?”

The waiter stood for a mere second before answering. “The name’s Aquila. Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, Aquila.” Bolin courtly said. “I’m sorry, again, about before. Pabu doesn’t usually do that.”

“It’s okay,” the waiter said back. “I used to have a pet of my own.”

“Oh, really?” Bolin suddenly became interested. “What happened to it?”

“I was told that it ran away,” Aquila said while looking at the fire ferret, “but I think that someone else took him in.” Then he remembered he was still working. “Sorry, I-I have to get back. It would be cool if we could hang out sometimes, Bolin.”

Bolin just nodded then turned back to his brother. “Hey, Mako, what do you think about the new waiter?”

Mako became surprised at the sudden question. “Well… he’s a pretty nice guy from what I can tell. Why do you ask?”

“There’s something about him that I can’t quite understand,” Bolin replied. There was this nagging feeling inside of Bolin that he didn’t know what it was.

“You ready for tomorrow’s game?” Mako enthusiastically asked to get rid of the building tension.

“Yeah I am!” Bolin responded with the same enthusiasm, “Just one more game after tomorrow’s win then we’ll be in the tournament!”

“I thought you two looked familiar. You’re both pro-benders,” a voice chimed in. Aquila was back at their table. “My shift just ended.”

“Yeah, we are, and we’re going to win tomorrow!” Bolin responded back then he came up with a thought. “Hey, do you want to come watch us play?”

“Sure, I do! But…” the waiter looked towards the ground. “I’ve just recently moved here, and I’ve always listened to pro-bending matches on the radio.”

“Well, that’s no problem,” Mako said, “Any time before the games, Just come through the back, and we’ll come to get you.”

“You’re helping him? Whenever I try to bring someone, you’re always like no,” the earth-bender said with disdain.

“You don’t want him to come?” the fire-bender asked skeptically.

“No, I do… It’s just that… it’s unusual for you to be helping people,” Bolin remarked.

“I do help people too,” Mako grumbled.

Aquila chuckled and said, “Thanks, Mako, I really appreciate it.” He looked outside to see the setting sun. “Well, I guess I’ll see you guys tomorrow then.”

When the skull-capped teen left, Bolin looked at his older brother. “It’s weird seeing you help a stranger.”

“Like I said, I do help others too,” Mako repeated, “he seemed like he really wanted to go, besides I knew you were going to help him, so I decided why not.”

Bolin wanted to say something back, but he couldn’t think of anything witty. “Alright, but I get to show him around.”

“That’s fine, I was thinking of getting some last minute practice in with Hasook,” The older brother told.

It was unusual for Bolin to be excited to show the gym to a guy. He usually finds a cute fan and shows her around. But this time, he was unsure of how act around his newly found friend.

~*~

The sun was setting, so Aquila went around to the back of the arena. He saw the back door, but there was someone else there, an old fellow that looked like he was a pro-bender himself. The old man saw him approaching and looked at him skeptically, “What are you doing back here?”

The voice was gruff and intimidating. Aquila raised his hands in defense, saying, “I’m here for Bolin and Mako.  They told me to come to the back.” There was a second of silence before the back door was opened by a familiar face. “And there he is now. Hey, Bolin!”

“Aquila! There you are! I was wondering when you were coming,” the earth-bender said before he face the old man. “Toza! This is my good friend, Aquila. He just moved into town, and I thought it would be good for him to sightsee.”

“Keh. Do what you want,” Toza said, but before he went back inside, he glared at the stranger, “If you break anything, then you’re going to have to pay for it.”

But before the old man was able to go back inside he was stop by a call. “You’re Toza? Toza from the Boarcupines? I’ve always heard about you and your team when I was younger! Oh man! It’s so exciting to see you!” Aquila was ecstatic to meet the retired pro-bender.

“Well, we were reigning champs for the longest,” the retired bender announced with pride.

“He was great when he was playing!” Bolin added in becoming enthusiastic as well. “It was him who got us into pro-bending.”

“Really? No way!” Aquila was being like a little kid, becoming star struck all of the sudden.

Bolin saw this and just smiled. “Now, let’s show you the inside of the arena!”

Aquila furiously nodded and tagged behind the earth-bender, leaving Toza who was reminiscing his past glories. Bolin was in his training gear, so Aquila thought that he was in the middle of training. “Did I come at a wrong time?”

“What do you mean?” Bolin asked, not knowing what he meant.

“Well, weren’t you training?” the other asked.

“Not really, I just wanted to show you how the training uniforms look like,” Bolin told him, “Don’t worry the real uniforms don’t look half as drab as this.” He took this time to look at what the other was wearing and it was something that wasn’t from around here. Aquila was wearing a dark hooded vest over his black tangzhuang with dark slacks. The tangzhuang had a gold trim, and the underside of the vest was also gold. He was still wearing the skullcap, apparently it wasn’t part of his uniform. Bolin remembered that the other said he just moved there, so he wondered. “Hey, Aquila? If you don’t mine me asking, where did you come from?”

The other became silent for a second before answering. “I came from Zaofu.”

The moment Bolin heard Zaofu, he became wicked excited. “Zaofu? You mean home of the metal clan? Then you must know how to metalbend?”

Aquila just sadly smiled. “Sadly, no, I don’t. It’s not in my power to bend.”

Bolin shared his smile, knowing fully well what the other meant. “I feel you, I’ve always wanted to metal-bend, but I just can’t figure it out.” Before they knew it, they were in front of the gym and they found Mako training alone. “Hey, Mako. Where’s Hasook?”

“He never showed up. I think he’ll show up late, like usual,” Mako said while he was throwing punches and kicks, practicing his fire-bending. He stopped and faced towards his brother to see the teen they had met the day before. “Hey, Aquila! Glad to see you’ve made it.”

“It’s awesome to be here!” Aquila was still excited as he was before. “I don’t know how to repay you both.”

“Don’t mention it,” Bolin clasped onto his shoulders, “We love helping people, right Mako?”

The fire-bender just chuckled and added, “Anytime. If you need help just come to us.”

“Thank you so much!” Aquila was super appreciative of them. “I mean, I’ve always enjoy hearing about pro-bending matches, and to be able to get the chance to see an actual pro-bending team and a tour of the arena, it’s just so awesome.”

Bolin can’t help but smile along with the excited person. “You know what? You can come practice with us. You can be my sub—”

“Bolin!” Mako shouted to cut off his brother. “Aren’t you getting ahead of yourself?”

The earth-bender became confused. He wasn’t at all. He knew the other really like pro-bending, so he thought that this would be a great opportunity for the other to experience it. Then he really looked at his new friend.

Aquila had a sad smile. “That would be great, Bolin, but when I said that it’s not in my power to bend, I meant that I can’t bend anything, not earth, water, fire, or air. Thanks for the invitation though. I really appreciate it.”

Bolin did get ahead of himself. He felt a bit bad because what he had said might’ve offended the other. “I’m sorry, Aquila. I immediately thought you knew how to bend because you were from Zaofu.” The earth-bender said the title enthusiastically.

“No, it’s my fault. I should’ve told you the whole story,” Aquila said to cheer up the other. He chuckled a bit before going on. “I was an orphan. I had no idea who my parents were. At the orphanage in Ba Sing Se where I was dropped off said that my parents were from the fire nation because of my eyes, but even they don’t know who my parents were.” He sat on a pillar of discs to get comfortable. “While I was in the orphanage, a wealthy couple took me in. They said that I deserve a better life, so they took me along with them to Zaofu where I lived until now.”

Bolin was engaged with his past, while Mako was getting curious about it. “What made you move out of Zaofu? I heard it’s a great city,” the fire-bender asked.

“Well, for starters, I’m a non-bender, so being close to all of those metal-benders just made life…” Aquila paused to find the right word. “…difficult and there’s something else too—” Aquila was going to continue but he was interrupted.

“There you guys are,” a teen with dark hair showed up, “Games are already starting.”

“Glad for you to finally show up, Hasook,” Mako chided.

“I’m here aren’t I?” the water-bender countered before leaving the gym, grumbling about how he’s being treated.

Mako just sighed and turned to Bolin. “Shall we get changed? Our game would be starting soon.”

The younger brother nodded. He faced the non-bender and gestured for him to follow. “C’mon we’ll show you the locker rooms.” While they were walking, Bolin could feel that Aquila was feeling a bit down. Bolin wanted to do something because it was probably hard talking about the past, though his past wasn’t too great either. He put his arm around the other teen’s shoulder. “Tell, you what, how about you come to every one of our games for free?”

Aquila smiled at the gesture. “Are you allowed to do that?”

“No, but no one will know, will they?” Bolin said with a smile.

The non-bender just nodded. “I’ll take you up on that offer.”

Bolin was glad that he was able to cheer up the other. He was more than glad, but he didn’t know what more he felt. Soon they were at their locker room. Mako went in first then Bolin held the door open for the guest, and announced, “This is our locker room.”

Aquila stepped in, and he saw the view. He was amazed. “This is amazing, you guys see this every time you guys play?”

Bolin just widely smiled. He was happy that there was someone who was super excited. Sure when he brings his fan-girls they squeal at the view, but somehow, this was different. He went to his locker and grabbed his uniform. He was taking off his practice suit, so he had nothing except his undergarment. From the corner of his eye he saw the other teen looking at him. Suddenly, his body started to heat up. Bolin didn’t know what was going on, but he felt nervous all of the sudden. He quickly put on the compression shirt first, then he put on the pants. He took out the pro-bending jacket and walked over to Aquila was still leaning on the railing. “So how are you liking Republic City so far?”

Aquila looked at the earth-bender and saw that he still wasn’t fully dressed, except for the compression shirt and pants. His mind just went blank when he saw Bolin’s muscles through the shirt, but his focus was brought back when he looked forward, trying to not to stare at the earthbender again, and also to keep Bolin from seeing the heavy blush on his face. “I-it’s going great, ever since I met you.”

Bolin took that as a compliment, but there was something about those words that made him feel more appreciated. Bolin looked softly at the other who was starting at the ring. He mentally shook his head and told the other, “Well, you should go find a seat, Mako hates it when there’s someone in here without us. You can come back here when we’re done.”

Aquila looked back at Mako and decided to heed Bolin’s words. He got off of the rail and headed towards the exit. “I guess I’ll see you guys whenever then,” he said before finally leaving.

“Alright, Aquila, I’ll see you later,” Mako said to their new friend. Bolin was now putting on his jacket when his older brother was approaching him. “He’s a pretty nice guy, isn’t he?”

“Yeah…” Bolin murmured.

Mako could tell that something was up with his younger brother. He asked in a slightly annoyed manner, “What’s wrong.”

“There’s something weird about Aquila…” Bolin started, “But that’s just me. Don’t worry about it. I’m sure I can figure it out.” He then tried to play it cool.

“Yeah… Sure…” Mako was skeptical of his younger brother. There was more to it than that, but he guessed he’ll let it go for now until it affects Bolin even further.

They were all ready, but Bolin still had this nervousness in him so he decided to take a walk. “I’m going to take a breather,” the earth-bender told his older brother, “I’ll be back soon; don’t worry.”

Bolin went walking around until he stumbled upon a pretty cute girl in the gym trying to talk her way out of Toza. It was his time to shine. He went to them exclaiming that he was looking for her this whole time. Once the retired pro-bender was convinced that the girl was just another fan-girl, he let them pass. She thanked for saving her, and he had a good feeling about this girl. She introduced herself as Korra, and he did the same. She was excited to find that he was Bolin of the Fire Ferrets.

He saw this as an opportunity to bring her to their locker rooms, and he did. He showed them the room, and she was amazed as Aquila was when he was here.

Mako saw her and took Bolin off to the side to scold him. “I told you. You have to stop bringing your craze fangirls in here before the matches. Get her out of here.”

Bolin just skeptically looked at him. “Okay. Just a few minutes ago, Aquila was just in here,” then he brightens up and points to the girl he had just met, “I got a good feeling, there’s something special about her. I know it! I’ll even introduce her to you.”

Bolin brings Korra to his brother and introduced her to him. She was excited to meet him, and she stuck out her hand for Mako to shake, but he just disregarded it and told his younger brother that it was their turn. Korra became offended, so Bolin just told her that it was because he gets really focused before matches.

The Fire Ferrets won the match because Mako was able to pull off a hat trick that saved their team. Korra was ecstatic at their win and praised Mako, but he was indifferent to her praise. The fire-bender just ignored her, and his brother continued to talk to her. After Korra had explained that she had been immersed in bending all of her life, Bolin proposed to teach her, but then after he said it, he realized that she was a water-bender. He became confused when she said that was an earth-bender despite her clothes she was wearing then she said she could also water-bend and fire-bend. Mako heard this from the corner and mentally face-palmed himself, saying that he was an idiot and she was that Avatar. She agreed with him.

They told the female to wait outside while they to were changing into more casual clothing.  She said that she didn’t mind watching them change in front of her, but then joked about it and exited the locker room. There she found a young man wearing a skull cap.

The teen pursed his lips, thinking that he may have taken a wrong turn but then thought against it and just decided to ask her, “Are the Fire Ferrets in there?”

She just nodded. “Their changing in there. Told me to wait out here until they were done.”

He smiled at her and stuck out his hand. “My name is Aquila.”

“Korra,” she stated while returning the handshake. “It’s nice to meet you, Aquila.”

Aquila nodded. “Nice to meet you too, Korra.” He then gazed at the door to the locker room. “Can you tell them that I left for home? I was supposed to meet with them afterwards.” The teen turned to leave, but something came up in his head. “And tell Mako he did a great job out there. I’ll see you around?” He said the last part with uncertainty.

“I’ll tell them that and definitely,” she smiled as she answered.

The boys soon came out of the locker room dressed in wife beaters and sweats. Bolin looked at her and asked, “Who were you talking to before?”

“Some guy, named Aquila,” the Avatar answered. “He stopped by to say he was going home for the night.”

Bolin stared down the hall and became a bit depressed but didn’t let it show. “Well that’s too bad. I thought about showing him some of my moves.” Then he looked at the water tribe girl and smiled. “But then I get to show you some moves.”

Korra became excited again. She was actually going to be learning new bending techniques rather than trying to learn airbending. Bolin took her back to the gym while Mako tagged along. Once they were inside, the earthbender brought out the earth disks and told her to earthbend the disks forward. She did, and he observed her posture. He criticized her saying that she was too upright and flat footed. He then demonstrated how he earthbends the disks probending style. She was highly impressed, Bolin grinned as he showed off. Korra tried again, but this time, copied how Bolin moved. It was the earthbender’s turn to be impressed. He complimented her, saying she was a natural, while Mako said that it wasn’t bad. The female rolled her eyes annoyed that that wasn’t exactly a compliment. The firebender had enough, so he just told them that he was going upstairs to turn in for the day. At that moment Korra learned that they live in the attic of the stadium. Bolin switched the subject back to probending and told the Avatar to try bending the disks again.

**Author's Note:**

> So... Everything's up in my head, so the only hard part is to getting everything down into words and details the way I want it to be... Originally planned to span through the whole 4 books and an additional one to sum it up. Additionally there would be a lot more things, but... I would still have to keep writing for that to happen. This is still recent so this would be easier to pick up.


End file.
